How to Create your Own Debloated Windows 11 ISO?

Windows 11 has been around for a while and it has left a lot of the older systems unsupported. Despite the system requirements, installing Windows 11 on older hardware is not optimal since the performance of the operating system is below par. This can be credited to the installation disc or ISO image of the operating system provided by Microsoft.

The ISO image contains all of the components that will be installed on your computer. Most of these features are not used by the users, so they serve no purpose at all. On the contrary, some of us tend to disable a number of features after performing a fresh install on the Windows operating system. 

One possible way you can go around these problems is to create a custom ISO image for yourself. There are numerous custom third-party ISO images available that have been stripped down to offer better performance on low-end computers. However, these third-party ISO images are not always recommended since there is a potential risk of security and much more. 

In such a scenario, what you can do is create a custom ISO image of your own where you can choose to remove the features that you do not use from the image and keep the ones that are important to you. This will result in a stripped-down installation of the Windows operating system and ideally, even perform better.

1. Download Windows 11 Image

To get started, the first thing that you will need to do is to download the latest version of the Windows 11 ISO image on your computer. These can be found easily on the UUP Dump website. In this article, we will be disclosing two different tools that allow you to create custom images of the Windows operating system. 

To download the latest Windows 11 image, follow the instructions down below:

1. First of all, head to the official UUP Dump website by clicking here. 
2. On the UUP Dump website, click on the x64 option for the Latest Public Release build.

   

3. After that, click on the latest Windows 11 version. Make sure not to click on the update options here.

   

4. On the next page, select your Language and click Next.

   

5. Then, select Windows Pro only from the Edition checkbox options and click Next.

   

6. On the Summary page, tick the Run component cleanup (Windows converter only) checkbox and click the Create download package option.

   

7. This will download a .zip file to your computer. Extract the file to any desired location on your PC.
8. Navigate to the extracted directory and run the uup_download_windows.cmd file.
9. A command prompt window will open which will start downloading the required files for you. 
10. Once the process has been completed, you can press 0 on your keyboard to exit the script. 

2. Using MSMG Toolkit

MSMG Toolkit is a famous tool for tweaking Windows ISO images. The utility allows you to make any changes to the ISO image as per your requirements and specifications. This includes adding any specific drivers to the ISO image, any potential updates or even removing components from the ISO image, which is the focus of this article as well. 

An arguable downside of the MSMG Toolkit is that it uses a command-line interface. Therefore, there is no graphical user interface that allows you to make these changes. If you would like to use a graphical user interface, jump to the following method below. 

We will be showing you how to remove components from the Windows ISO image with the help of the MSMG Toolkit in this section. Removing components from the ISO image also reduces the overall size of the ISO image, which as a result reduces the installation size of Windows. Additionally, the number of processes running on your computer is also reduced, which can give you a performance boost. 

Follow the instructions below to use MSMG Toolkit to tweak Windows ISO:

1. First, navigate to the official Download page for MSMG Toolkit by clicking here.
2. From there, download the latest version of the MSMG Toolkit on your computer.
3. Extract the downloaded file to any desired location. 
4. After that, double-click on the downloaded Windows ISO image on your PC. This will mount the ISO image. 
5. Then, copy the contents of the ISO image.

   

6. Navigate to the MSMG Toolkit folder and paste the contents inside the DVD folder.

   

7. Finally, go back and run the Start.cmd script. On the User Account Control dialog box, click Yes.

   

8. On the EULA screen, press A on your keyboard to accept.

   

9. After that, press 1 on your keyboard to navigate to Sources.

   

10. Press 1 again to choose the Select Source from <DVD> Folder.

    

11. Finally, press 1 once more to select the downloaded ISO image, Windows 11 Pro.

    

12. On the follow-up questions, select No. Then, press any key to continue to the main menu. 
13. After that, press 3 to navigate to the Remove menu.

    

14. Here, all of the different components are divided into their respective category. 
15. Navigate the Remove menu and select the respective options to remove any component from the ISO image.
16. For instance, if you wish to remove Internet Explorer, select 1 to open the Internet category.
17. After that, press 3 to select Internet Explorer for removal from the ISO image.

    

18. Once you have selected all of the components you wish to remove, choose the [2] Start Removing Windows Components by pressing 2 on your keyboard in the Remove menu.
19. The removal process can take a while so make sure to give it time. 
20. Then, go back to the main menu and press 5 to choose Apply.

    

21. After that, select the Cleanup Source Images option by pressing 1 on your keyboard. 
22. Finally, select the Apply & Save Changes to Source Images option by pressing 2. When you are prompted to clean up the image folder, press Y on your keyboard.
23. At this point, everything is ready and you can create the final ISO image. To do this, choose the Target option on the main menu by pressing 6.

    

24. On the Target menu, choose the Make a DVD ISO Image option by pressing 1. 
25. When asked for ISO Image Details, provide E: as the ISO Volume Label and follow it up by providing a name. 
26. Wait for the ISO image to be created. Once done, you will be able to view it inside the ISO folder of the directory. 

3. Using NTLite

NTLite is another utility that you can use to tweak Windows ISO images. This was essentially developed to reduce the footprint of Windows installation, but it comes with a number of features that you can use including removing components from an ISO image. 

NTLite even allows you to remove Windows 11 TPM and RAM requirements, along with providing a graphical user interface to all of this. Follow the instructions below to use NTLite on your computer:

1. First, navigate to the official website for NTLite and download the latest version available by clicking here.
2. Run the setup file to install NTLite on your computer.
3. After that, right-click on the downloaded Windows ISO image and extract it to any folder on your computer. You need to have WinRAR or 7-zip installed to do this.
4. Open NTLite on your system.
5. Click the Add option in the top-left corner and choose the Image directory option.

   

6. Then, choose the folder where you extracted the Windows ISO image.
7. After that, expand the added folder and right-click on Windows 11 Pro. Choose Load from the drop-down menu.

   

8. Once you have loaded the ISO image, you can go through the various categories and remove the components you do not want in your custom ISO image.
9. To remove a component, simply uncheck the checkbox next to the component or feature.
10. After you are done, click Apply on the left-hand side.

    

11. Finally, click the Create ISO option in the top-left corner to create a custom ISO image and save it in your desired location.